Free Republic

Prop 19 went down in smoke, but the world's fifth biggest economy passed three propositions that address its yearly budget crisis. One makes it better and two make it worse, according to Bond Buyer. First, California voters passed Prop 25 to allow the legislature to pass a state budget without a 2/3 supermajority. This was the main obstacle to passing a budget this year for over 100 days past due. Arkansas and Rhode Island are the only states that still require a supermajority to pass the budget, and Rhode Island is another fiscal disaster. Second, California voters passed Prop 26...

Governor Cuomo has signed off on the National Popular Vote Compact, giving New York's 29 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. SILive: Count New York in. The Empire State has joined the National Popular Vote compact with legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. States that have signed on to the interstate agreement will award electoral votes for president to the candidate who receives the majority of the national popular vote. "With the passage of this legislation, New York is taking a bold step to fundamentally increase the strength and fairness of our nation's presidential elections,"...

A plan, now stealthily making its way through state legislatures with astonishing speed, would junk the Electoral College and award the presidency to the winner of the popular vote. The plan involves an Interstate Compact where states would commit to select electors pledged to vote for the national popular vote winner regardless of how their own state voted. When enough states pass this law, sufficient to cast 270 votes which is the majority of the Electoral College, it will take effect. So far, nine states and the District of Columbia, casting 136 electoral votes, have joined. This is halfway to...

For all the noise about the State Department's final environmental review of the Keystone XL Pipeline being a "blow" to pipeline opponents, the report contains more than enough information for Secretary of State John Kerry -- a respected environmental champion -- to conclude that the pipeline is not in the national interest. Although you have to dig a bit, the report recognizes the dangers associated with the tar sands fuel that the pipeline would transport. Kerry's obligation is to determine what is in the national interest. For all its flaws, the report acknowledges that the tar sands that would get...

“Well, we couldn’t be happier to have that conversation,” the senator declared, starting off strong by highlighting people in his state who received timely preventive care thanks to their new insurance. But that one point was about all the Democratic lawmaker could muster. “Over and over again,” he went on, “people still on the uh… healthcare benefits from uh, the… um… um… of the seniors who are… uh… getting their, uh, pharmaceuticals paid for… I’m struggling for the, for the — donut hole! There we go!” “It’s been very good for most Rhode Islanders,” an embarrassed Whitehouse continued. “And there...

GARY, Ind. - Federal agents raided a northwestern Indiana township trustee's office Thursday, although they stayed mum on the reasons for the raid. FBI agents were joined with officers from the Indiana State Police and the IRS in a sweep of Calumet Township Trustee Mary Elgin's office in Gary on Thursday. Call 6 Investigator Kara Kenny found a 2011 audit of the trustee's office that raised concerns about the township's finances, including nine employees with take-home cars.

Three Democratic lawmakers were either arrested or had their office raided Wednesday by the FBI. Two of the Democrats, including Charlotte, N.C. Mayor Patrick Cannon, were charged in connection with FBI stings that caught them allegedly taking bribes from undercover agents. Coupled with an FBI raid that led to the resignation of a prominent Democratic lawmaker in Rhode Island this past weekend, four Democrats have recently come under the FBI’s radar. Here are the four: New York state assemblyman The FBI raided Democratic New York Assemblyman William Scarborough’s Albany office Wednesday morning and also took papers from his office in...

This is becoming one hell of a week! The “gun-grabbers” are falling finally, and it all started with Rhode Island State Senator (“Go F%#K Yourself”) Joshua Miller. Next was Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon Fox when his house was raided by the “Feds,” then Democratic gun-grabbing CA Senator Leland Yee who’s charged with illegally trafficking machine guns and rocket launchers, and who’s in the hot seat now? None other than Illinois Democratic State Representative Keith Farnham. How could things possibly get any worse for the Democratic party? We’ve already got cheating, bribery, extortion, money laundering, illegal weapons trafficking,...

A reporter has been detained by Capitol Hill police for trying to ask a question of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy. Bloomberg BNA energy reporter Ari Natter tweeted about being detained. #transparency RT @AriNatter: I am being detained by Capital Police for trying to ask @EPAGina a question after her remarks. — nickjuliano (@nickjuliano) March 28, 2014 Natter was detained while covering the American Council On Renewable Energy conference, where McCarthy spoke. Also speaking at the conference was Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a staunch supporter of green energy who regularly takes the Senate floor to sound the...

You have to feel for the Providence Journal reporter assigned to report on an "apology" by Rhode Island state senator Joshua Miller. There was just no easy way to describe exactly what Miller was "apologizing" for but staff reporter tried his best without being explicit. You can watch the foul mouthed Miller respond to a radio host who questioned the state senator about his support for gun control legislation in this video and after the jump. However, please be warned.  A strong language alert due to the dirt spewing from the mouth of Miller as well as an associate photographing...

<p>Rhode Island state senator Josh Miller (D-Cranston, Warwick) and his apparent cameraman — though henchman may be more appropriate in this case — told Dan Bidondo of Truth Radio Show to “go f*ck” himself after the conservative talk-show host asked for comment on Second-Amendment rights, according to a video posted to YouTube Monday.</p>

The number of food stamp recipients (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) fell in Texas in 2013, dropping 4.6 percent from a year earlier to 3.9 million recipients in December 2013. Nationally, SNAP caseload declined by 2.1 percent from December 2012 to December 2013 as the job market gradually warmed up. California’s SNAP caseload bucked the national trend, increasing 4.1 percent to 4.3 million recipients, the second-largest percentage increase in the nation behind Maryland. Eleven states saw an increase in their SNAP rolls, Maryland, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Nebraska and Rhode Island , while...

On March 18, Truth Radio Show's Dan Bidondi, approached Rhode Island state senator Josh Miller (D) for comment on "several unconstitutional, draconian gun bills"--Miller told Bidondi to "go f*** [himself.]" Bidondi's exact words to Miller were: "The Second Amendment shall not be infringed, you people need to understand that." Miller's exact response was: "Go f*** yourself." Miller's camera man/photographer then leaned in to the microphone and said, "Yeah, go f*** yourself."

Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox is resigning from his leadership post and will not run for re-election, he said Saturday, a day after federal and state authorities raided his Statehouse office and home as part of a criminal investigation that they would not detail. “Because of the respect I have for all members of the House of Representatives, I am resigning as Speaker,” Fox said in a written statement emailed to reporters. “The process of governing must continue and the transition of leadership must be conducted in an orderly manner.” The 52-year-old Providence Democrat, who became the nation’s first...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Law enforcement officials raided the office and home of House Speaker Gordon Fox on Friday as part of a criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney's office, FBI, IRS and state police. Officials would not say who or what was being investigated, but authorities worked for hours inside the Democratic House speaker's Statehouse office while state police troopers stood outside. Authorities entered the office carrying an evidence bag and empty cardboard boxes Friday morning. Fox's spokesman, Larry Berman, said state police had asked everyone working in the office to leave, but he didn't know why. At around...

At least 28 Senate Democrats plan to spend hours Monday night and early Tuesday speaking on the Senate floor in a push for congressional action on climate change. It's a strategy that's been in the works for several months, organized by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who've been seeking to raise awareness about their concerns on and off the Senate floor. Adopting a strategy used in the past year by some Senate Republicans, the Democrats will begin speaking Monday night after a series of votes and continue until about 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to...

Gun-grabbing Democrat Representative Joseph S. Almeida introduced deceptively titled “Safe Firearms Act” (H 7583) yesterday to the Rhode Island General Assembly yesterday. The citizen control law (PDF) is more restrictive than controversial laws in New York and Connecticut in some respects. It bans the purchase of so-defined “assault weapons” immediately upon enactment, and requires registration of all firearms that meet the definition. The bill, referred to the House Judiciary Committee, targets selective-fire and semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and pistols, both rimfire and centerfire, and adds a constructive possession clause that would deem any otherwise compliant firearm an “assault weapon” if the...

As a hard-partying teenager, Patrick Kennedy met President Reagan at a fundraiser for the JFK Library, a meeting captured in a photograph that the former Rhode Island congressman now hangs in his home office. He used to think of it as a funny episode, a collision of Camelot’s cocaine kid and America’s foremost opponent of illegal drug use. But Kennedy took his last hit of anything in 2009, and he’s since honed an anti-drug message that sounds a bit like Reagan with a Boston brogue. Kennedy believes there is "an epidemic in this country of epic dimensions when it comes...

A month and a half after the unsuccessful effort to oust four Exeter Town Council members, financial reports filed by both sides show that in the weeks leading up to the recall vote, the firearms-rights supporters who mounted the effort were badly outgunned in terms of campaign cash. According to contribution and spending reports filed by We The People/Rhode Island Firearms League, the Exeter Democratic Town Committee and Save Exeter, the council members’ own political action committee, the anti-recall forces were able to outspend We the People by a better than 2-to-1 ratio in the 10 weeks leading up to...

PROVIDENCE - Some Rhode Island lawmakers said Tuesday they want to legalize and tax marijuana. NBC News reported that marijuana brought in more than $1 million in tax revenue for Colorado in the first 27 days it was legal. "Rhode Island faces a pretty serious deficit. The sooner we pass this legislation, the sooner we can start to realize the necessary tax revenue off these sales," state Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, said. Supporters of the bill said they believe legalizing marijuana could bring $26 million in tax revenue to Rhode Island annually. Ajello and state Sen. Josh Miller, D-Cranston, have...